Wrecking Oldsmobile

Updated Dec. 18, 2000 5:56 p.m. ET

Though I was a child of a "Ford family" with three Country Squires and a sky blue Gran Torino behind me, my first car was a newly downsized 1978 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme I bought while an Army second lieutenant ("How GM Wrecked Oldsmobile ").

I really loved that car but it, and more specifically General Motors, would betray my trust. Within 30 months and 28,000 miles, its automatic transmission failed on the wrong side of a two year, 24,000 mile warranty. In answer to my incredulity at the mechanic's...